Achewood

About

Achewood is a webcomic created by Chris Onstad. It was originally published regularly throughout the 2000s before undergoing numerous hiatuses in the 2010s, and is currently inactive. The comic follows the lives of a cast of anthropomorphic stuffed animals with full backstories. It has received numerous awards for its writing and writer.

History and Overview

The first Achewood comic was posted by Onstad on October 1st, 2001 (shown below).^[1][2] He states that he was inspired to start the comic after the events of September 11th, 2001.

Over the following decade, Onstad regularly updated Achewood, creating long story arcs and developing backstories for the characters. These story arcs and backstories are not told linearly, but rather through one-off strips, and the information on the characters has been gathered by connecting the strips. The characters include Raymond Smuckles, a cat who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for success in pop music, wears a thong, fur coat, and a gold medallion; Cassandra "Roast Beef" Kazenzakis, a cat interested in computer programming, married to Molly Sanders, whom he met in heaven during a near-death experience; Phillippe, a younger, optimistic character; and many more. There have been 46 story arcs developed between 2002 and 2010. Onstad has published seven collections of Achewood books. The In late 2012 and 2013, Onstad floated the possibility of an animated Achewood series^[4] and posted test footage, though the show never came to fruition.

Hiatuses

After beginning to skip days in late 2010, Onstad announced in March of 2011 that Achewood would be going on hiatus.^[3] It returned in November of 2011 and updated sporadically before going on hiatus again on April 7th, 2014. The comic returned on December 24th, 2015 and went on hiatus again on December 25th, 2016.^[5]

Awards and Praise

The comic has won numerous accolades and the praise of several influential internet comedians. It won the Ignatz award in 2007 and 2008 for Outstanding Online Webcomic. It has also won multiple Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards. It has also been named a top webcomic by Cracked, TIME, and AV Club. It also a noted favorite of web cartoonist Branson Reese. ^[6]

Various Comics

Search Interest

External References